Psy notes

Psy notes

Maurice Canty
PSY 3060
Exam 1 Study Guide

1. Rene Descartes believed that everything behavior wise by humans were determined by free will and being conscious.   Now he did at one point take into consideration to human native that a lot of things that are done by humans are automatic which results into a reflex.   So with that, that’s where the involuntary and voluntary behavior comes from.   Involuntary behavior is reflexes elicited by environment stimuli and voluntary behaviors that are elicited by free will.  

Animals are the only non-human organism that has the capability to act out involuntary behavior.   But Descartes believes that all non-human animals can act out reflexes to external stimuli but is incapable to act out free will and voluntary behavior.   It’s apparently a unique human trait.  

The soul deals with the voluntary behavior because its starts in the mind then communicate with the brain then to the pineal gland, then by the brain to the muscle.   Where as the environmental stimuli triggers the reflex that involves transmission of sensory information from the sense organ to the brain.   Then from the brain to the muscle.

2. Tabula Rasa was to start out on a blank slate and gradually start to gain knowledge through experience.   Nativism on the other hand believed that contents were brought to mind despite the worldly experience.   Felt that we were born with certain ideas about one self and so forth.   Hedonism was a principle that worked out in a way that voluntary experience was to pursue pleasure and bypass pain.   Associationism that the environment can put a long-lasting effect on your mind which affects your voluntary behavior.

3. He said that the thoughts that produced the voluntary behavior that occurred in the absence of an obvious stimulus were the reflexive response.   Voluntary behavior and thoughts are elicited by fain stimuli.   Were as bringing out stimuli is inconspicuous.  

4. He said that the human...